Scenes from Grove House

I thought it might be nice to break up my travel posts with more current daily life happenings. Going through thousands of vacation photos can seem like a mind numbing vortex and it’s feeling a bit overwhelming to try and play catch up. So let’s just jump back and forth, shall we?

Have I mentioned that we have a rescue pup named Liberty? She’s a Bochi – half Boston Terrier, half Chihuahua. She’s the result of a botched breeding attempt by the Boston Terriers owner. They couldn’t sell the puppies as pure bred Bostons and had plans to take her and her sister to the pound. My husband drove 3 hours to rescue both. Hence the name Liberty – freedom from the shelter! Her sister, Henrietta lives with our daughter and now they have play dates.

She’s a quirky dog that happens to love fruit and veggies and is always under foot when the smoothie king has the blender whirring. He makes big batches of them every day or two and lines up a row of mason jars in the fridge for quick grab and go meals. There are zero recipes. And the same smoothie is never repeated. He doesn’t even keep track of the ingredients. Just throws stuff in. I think this one had carrot juice, pomegranate juice, bananas, strawberries, apricots, apples, spinach, blueberries, cucumber, and ground flax seed. See what I mean?

This weekend was the Long Beach Antique Market and I somehow convinced him it was a good idea to go look for furniture. On Fathers Day. In the extreme heat. Gosh I love him. We left the house around 5:30 to try and finish before the high temps became unbearable. I had big plans of taking photos but only took one – then promptly put my camera away. So yeah.

We didn’t find any furniture but he did buy an antique fan made in the 40’s. It runs like a dream. So smooth and quiet. And heavy! All the new fans I’ve bought over the years have ended up hissing and screaming while they spin or end up puttering out. Goes to say; they don’t make them like they used to.

I planted a Cherokee Purple tomato plant because a summer without homegrown tomatoes is a crying shame. I’m watering it on the daily hoping it will survive the heat. Fingers crossed. If you see me at the farmers market buying armloads of heirlooms – you know what happened.

Oh, and two of my nieces are on high school break so I asked them if they’d like to intern with me this summer. I’m sure they have more exciting things to do like lay around the pool, spend endless hours on Snapchat or sleep in. But both said yes…I think it was the “paid” internship that hooked them. We’re going to alternate days to keep things even and I’m looking forward to having the company in the studio. That way I won’t have to continue practicing hand modeling with my self timer or remote shutter. Even looking at this photo makes me laugh!

The first one starts tomorrow morning and we have plans to tackle my overflowing filing cabinets. In case you’re wondering how exciting it is to work with me.